When you work hard, you’re tired. Sometimes all you can do is vege in front of the tube, maybe pass out, and go to bed. But you’re not always that worn out. Often, we stay up for a while and wile away the time. How we wile away time matters.
One day-off I was sitting in an easy chair, feeling lazy. I hadn’t worked that day and had, basically, the whole day ahead of me. I felt too lazy to listen to Beethoven on my iPod, or jazz, and settled for classic rock. I don’t mean to disparage classic rock at all. It’s good. But it doesn’t require much effort to listen to. It doesn’t sound right, but Beethoven or Bach seem to require listener effort. At least concentration, which takes effort. Even Beethoven’s 6th required more effort than I had in me that day.
But I criticize myself for my laziness. Vegeing in front of TV, or letting classic rock pass time is a cheat of the soul. Now we can’t and shouldn’t only listen to Beethoven or read Shakespeare or David Hume. But I need to rise to Beethoven’s intonation in some moments. My life is blessed when I do listen to him. Or when I am able to read Shakespeare. Hume isn’t hard, he just requires a lot of time. And the point is, I need to make time for them all.
Erik Erikson writes about a late stage of development called “Generativity versus Stagnation.” It’s a stage in life when we are concerned with passing on wisdom to the next generation. It seems to be hitting me. Symphony halls can’t make a go of classics, so they are playing “pops” and other light music to keep their doors open. In my hometown, it’s hard to find concerts that I want to go to, meaning Bach, Beethoven, Ravel, Copeland, et. al. I talked with a biology student who was forced to read Shakespeare. She complained to me why they wouldn’t let her read something more contemporary. Jazz venues are closing. Two undergraduate girls at a prestigious university couldn’t tell me who came first, Moses or Jesus. While my personal problem is getting my lazy butt up to giving Beethoven the listening he deserves, my fear for society is that all these things are being sloughed off by indifference, apathy, ignorance.
I’m not just complaining about passing on my generation’s likes to the next. I believe that the individuals I mention, and others of a like kind, have a precious gift to humanity. Losing them is like losing a part of the human soul. But then again, contemporary philosophy teaches that there isn’t a soul, never was one. I’m not at the point of despair yet. Maybe closer to alarm. And that includes alarm at myself, too. I hate to think I’m sinking into a laziness that doesn’t have the energy to put on a Beethoven symphony. Even the death march in his his 3rd.
David Fekete 